Friday, February 18, 2011

Right to Self-determination: Key to the Ogaden Crisis and Solution to the Horn of Africa

@ Resolve Ogaden Coalition
The people of the disputed Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia have endured decades of devastating armed conflict and government repression. The appalling human rights violations and ongoing humanitarian crisis, however, have received little attention from the international community.

In the wake of Southern Sudan’s successful referendum, international community including the United States government can no longer ignore the plight of the Somali people of the Ogaden. The U.S. government must recognize that the armed struggle in the Ogaden is a quest for self-determination. It is a demand whose realization is long overdue and that can no longer be ignored. Until the right of self-determination is recognized, it will be impossible to build a functioning, secular, pluralistic, democratic, and just society in the Ogaden and in greater Ethiopia.

The right to self-determination is the right of a people to freely determine their political status and the right to choose the economic, social, and cultural paths that they will take. Self-determination and the cultural and political autonomy and independence that come with it are human rights. While no particular outcome or form of government is necessarily implied by the right to self-determination, the consent of the governed is the centerpiece of the right. “The right to self-determination is recognized in international law as a right of process (not of outcome) belonging to peoples and not to states or governments.”
For the socially, politically, and economically marginalized people of the Ogaden, the only acceptable means by which to ensure the people’s right to self-determination is an internationally monitored referendum similar to the January 2011 referendum by which Southern Sudan overwhelmingly voted for independence. The Ethiopian federal government has failed to honor and uphold the basic rights of the Somali people. The government in place (EPRDF Government) has instead used marginalization and terror to oppress the people of Ogaden.

The long history of European involvement in the Horn of Africa fundamentally altered and disrupted the political and social stability of the entire region. The current crisis in the Ogaden is a direct consequence of ill-advised colonial European policies. In 1936, Italy – hoping to expand its East African Empire – invaded and occupied Ethiopia and the Ogaden region. In 1942, Great Britain restored Ethiopia’s sovereignty, but then in three stages occurring in 1948, 1954, and 1956, illegally transferred the Ogaden region to Ethiopia. British colonial administrators knew very well that the Ogaden was ethnically distinct from the larger Ethiopian population, with major social, cultural, linguistic, and religious differences and longstanding animosities.

In the nearly 70 years since the illegal transfer of the Ogaden, successive Ethiopian governments have adopted polices of political and social repression. The current Ethiopian regime headed by Meles Zanawi, who shamefully claimed 99.6% of the votes in the country's recent sham election, is no different from previous governments and has proven incapable of addressing and resolving the longstanding grievances of the Somali people of the Ogaden.

The current administration has practiced systematic terror, rape, mass imprisonment, and genocidal massacres, all with a purpose to intimidate the population and to suppress support for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which seeks independence for the seven million ethnic Somalis. Moreover, the current regime has failed to learn from the mistakes of its predecessors; in recent months, it has preoccupied itself with constructing fictitious “peace negotiations,” presumably to paint a picture of “peace and stability” in the region. The goal, however, is to mislead the international community, in particular, Chinese investors who seek to exploit and commercialize the region's oil and natural gas reserves.

Today, the conflict between the ONLF and the Ethiopian government has accelerated to an alarming magnitude. Credible human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly raised concerns over human rights violations committed by the Ethiopian armed forces and the government's policy of blocking international organizations from entering and providing aid to the millions in need. Recent satellite images illustrate the burning of entire villages by the Ethiopian government. Furthermore, tens of thousands remain displaced in neighboring countries, with no access to basic necessities. Hundreds of women and children have been abducted or raped. Thousands more children are conscripted into government-sponsored militias called Liyu police, with the sole purpose of further terrorizing and destabilizing the region. Recommendations: U.S policy towards the Ogaden

First, the U.S. government must condemn the inhumane actions of the Ethiopian government, and pressure the Ethiopian armed forces to halt military operations in the region. At the same time, the U.S. should urge the government to lift the economic and humanitarian blockade in the Ogaden. In addition, the Obama administration must recognize the legitimate grievances of the Somali people of the Ogaden and support the right of self-determination for the people of the Ogaden, in the same manner in which the U.S. supported the successful and peaceful secession movement in South Sudan. The successful resolution of the South Sudan / North Sudan conflict is proof to all skeptics that the international community and the people of Africa are capable of correcting the wrongs done and standing for justice and self-determination. It would be hypocritical and immoral for the U.S. government to fail to apply to the human tragedy and injustice in the Ogaden the same policies that it followed with regard to South Sudan.

Resolve Ogaden Coalition strongly believes that a peaceful and democratic Ogaden is in the best interest of the United States and the international community at large. Much of the greatness of the United States is its commitment to protect human rights and personal freedoms. It is essential that the Obama administration spearhead the international community in resolving the longstanding conflict and correcting the injustices in the Ogaden. As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The injustice in the Ogaden can no longer be ignored; swift action and policy change is urgently needed, so that the children of the Ogaden can finally live the lives of which their parents have only dreamt.

Resolve Ogaden Coalition is a national nonprofit organization devoted to developing and maintaining a just and lasting solution to the longstanding conflict in the Ogaden region through the implementation of comprehensive policies that ensure the development and protection of the socioeconomic, political, and human rights of the region.

MoS Moments of Silence

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

Designation of Al-Shabaab

When our world changed forever

Al-Shabaab

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

SOMALI REPUBLICANS

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Somalia

About Us

The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.

Al-Qaida in Somalia. ...

We Are Winning the War on Terrorism in Horn of Africa

The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.